Beauty and the Beasts

“This wolf wanted to eat me and came to me by itself.”

Bluepool let out a bitter laugh and said with a sigh, “The merfolk have come up to land to hunt for food, and the beastmen on land can enter the sea to extract salt as well. There no longer seems to be any difference between the beastmen on land from the ones in the water anymore.”

Bai Qingqing nudged him with her shoulder and said, “This is a necessary process in evolution. Everyone is developing in a good direction. Don’t be unhappy.”

“Mm.”

Bluepool took his prey and returned to the waterhole.

Some beastmen had come with their salt containers. Bai Qingqing quickly said to Winston, “Don’t distribute it for now. Let’s clean it first. It’ll be easy to get sick if we eat the salt with dirty things inside.”

Winston hadn’t been concerned at the beginning, but when he heard the last part, he decisively got the tribal head to stop the distribution.

The tiger beastmen felt like a cat was scratching at their hearts as they crowded around the salt bucket, unwilling to leave.

Winston asked, “How do we sieve it?”

“Wait a moment. I’ll make a trip back.” After saying that, Bai Qingqing tugged at Parker and said, “Quickly send me back to the tree hole.”

Curtis was curled up and resting on the second floor, seemingly as if he hadn’t been disturbed by the noise in the village.

Bai Qingqing gently flipped through the clothes chest but was unable to find a single piece of snakeskin clothing even after rummaging through it.

“Hmmm? Where did they go?”

Bai Qingqing took out all the clothes and searched for the clothing one by one. However, she still couldn’t find anything.

“Where could they be?”

Bai Qingqing scratched her head anxiously. Curtis’s snakeskin was good. Although it looked as if there were no pores, the ventilation was very good. It was excellent material for filtering and would definitely be able to keep the sand away. Salt would dissolve in water, so, after the filtering, it should be clean.

Parker sniffed and then turned toward Curtis, who was coiled up like a lollipop. Bai Qingqing followed his gaze and noticed him as well. She quickly walked over and asked, “Curtis, did you see your snakeskin?”

“Ssss—”

He hid his snake head near his stomach.

“Hey, Curtis.” Bai Qingqing was baffled. Was he in a bad mood? Or was he going to shed his skin?

Parker then sniffed, lowered his head, and kept on whiffing at the dried grass pile.

“They are inside,” Parker said with certainty.

Bai Qingqing was stunned, then punched Curtis. “So, you hid them.”

Curtis looked up helplessly at her.

“Quickly, give me the snakeskin. I’ll bring it back very soon,” Bai Qingqing said.

Curtis refused to budge no matter what she said.

Parker thought of an idea and scratched his eyes. “Hmph. I’ll go down and dig a hole through the floor.”

“Ssss—” Curtis glared coldly at him, swinging his snake tail as if saying “If you dare move, I’ll send you flying away.”

Bai Qingqing drew out handfuls of grass under Curtis’s body and pleaded, “Good husband, please be benevolent and move your body.”

Curtis’s eyes darted toward her, moving his upper body and turning into a half-man half-snake form.

Bai Qingqing was elated and said, “You’ve agreed?”

“What is ‘good husband’?” Curtis instinctively felt that the meaning of these words would make his mood better and thus decided to speak up.

Bai Qingqing blushed. She was really giving up on her integrity to plead for the snakeskin, saying things without thinking.

“Good husband means… good mate. The females from where I come from refer to their males as ‘husband,'” Bai Qingqing said with a reddened face.

This meant that he was a good mate?

Curtis’s blood-red snake pupils presented an elation that was contrary to ordinary snake beastmen.

The females’ recognition toward their mates might be very normal to other males, but to a snake beastman, it was definitely a great blessing.